Cinco de Mayo: Drink to General Zaragoza, Hero of the American Civil War!

Hey Mexico, we'll trade you McClellan for Zaragoza

Quick, read this before it’s five o’clock and Margarita Time begins! You may already know that in Mexico, Cinco de Mayo barely registers as a celebration, while in the U.S., it’s kind of a big(ger) deal. You may also know why: because the Battle of Puebla involved a much smaller Mexican force defeating France, the best-armed and provisioned army in the western world, in 1862.

Mexican General Ignacio Zaragoza

The French army, commanded by General Charles de Lorencez, was advancing on Mexico City to take over the country and put Maximilian of Hapsburg in as emperor. You ask, why was France trying to take over Mexico in the first place? Why you might as well ask why an American president would want to retake the Panama Canal, or Greenland.

Money, mi amigo. Pesos. The casus belli in this case was debt, and Mexico’s inability to repay loans to England, Spain, and France. They all sent troops to collect their cash. England, well, they were occupied with other things, and there was little money to be made in Mexico at the time, so they withdrew. Spain also decided to pass, leaving France to take all of Mexico.

I mean, it couldn’t be that hard, right? American Gen. Winfield Scott led American troops into Mexico City in 1845, just 17 years earlier, and kicked Mexico’s tail, extracting $15 million, securing all of Texas, along with California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and other territory. If it were up to President James K. Polk, we would have also gotten Baja. Imagine Walt Disney World, except in Cabo!

Except in the case of de Lorencez, he faced a formidable tactician in General Ignacio Zaragoza. But first, let me back up a bit. The U.S. had (and has) a policy called the Monroe Doctrine, which means “European powers, hands off North America” (not so much for China). But in 1862, our military was somewhat distracted, fighting each other in the Civil War. The U.S. Navy was too busy blockading southern ports to be bothered by the French landing in Mexico. And all of Scott’s best troops were leading armies in blue and grey.

France, not to mention England and Spain, were waiting and watching to see if the Confederate States of America was worth their support. France was somewhat sympathetic to the confederate cause, and having Mexico aid the CSA would have put a rather nasty wrench into the works for the U.S. Army and President Abe Lincoln.

Lincoln was not yet completely tired of his top general running the Army of the Potomac, Gen. George B. McClellan. But Lincoln was frustrated that McClellan put so much stock in training, training, training, and equipment, but so little energy into fighting the war. For months, McClellan did absolutely nothing. And finally, as de Lorencez was marching his French troops into the arroyo along the Rio de San Francisco running through Puebla between Fort Loreto and Fort Guadalupe, McClellan pushed his Army of the Potomac between the York and James rivers toward Richmond.

Cinco de Mayo, May 5, 1862, was the Battle of Williamsburg. If McClellan would have won it, he could have marched on Richmond and ended the war with the capture of the capital of the Confederacy and the defeat of Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Northern Virginia, nearly three years before a fighting general, Ulysses S. Grant, accomplished it at Appomattox Court House. McClellan should have had a cake walk: in April, he had 130,000 men facing Gen. James B. Magruder’s 11-15,000 rebels at Yorktown, but decided to lay siege instead of an assault.

Magruder retreated to Williamsburg, while McClellan finally ordered an advance. Gen. James Longstreet picked good ground to conduct a rearguard action on McClellan’s advancing troops: it was called the “bloody ravine” as the battle raged in the pouring rain all day. Why did McClellan not overwhelm the much smaller Confederate force? He was too cautious, and had a bad habit of not believing his own intelligence, and inflating the size of the enemy force. So he thought Magruder had about 40,000 men instead of 15,000 maximum. And with 130,000 men, and not the best ground, McClellan didn’t think over a 2:1 advantage was enough.

By the time he moved, the Confederates had gathered more than 55,000 men, and the Army of the Potomac had lost it’s biggest advantage. Even then, McClellan estimated rebel strength at 100,000. On May 5, the Battle of Williamsburg became, as Gen. Joseph Hooker later reported, “swollen into one of gigantic proportions.” The Confederates sustained up to 4,000 casualties (killed, wounded, and captured) when it abandoned the fortifications on the Williamsburg line. Union forces took 2,283 casualties.

The May 5th battle ended with Confederates retreating behind their fortifications and earthworks surrounding Richmond, and the Army of the Potomac carefully picking its way to an unfruitful Peninsula Campaign in the Seven Days’ Battles, when Robert E. Lee took over the Army of Northern Virginia, and went on the attack to save Richmond, causing McClellan to retreat. Thus, the best opportunity for an early end of the Civil War was squandered.

In Mexico, the Battle of Puebla was much more limited in scope, but quite important in the scheme of Mexican independence. Gen. Zaragoza positioned his 4-5,000 militia, most of whom were poorly equipped, along with artillery, in two forts, Loreto and Guadalupe. Gen. Porfirio Díaz kept his cavalry units in reserve. (Interestingly, Díaz became dictator of Mexico from 1876 until he was deposed in 1911, when he fled to—Paris—where he died at the ripe old age of 84 in 1915. You can’t make this stuff up. Toast Díaz with a Cuervo Gold and shatter the glass when you finish!)

French Gen. de Lorencez commanded 6,000 vaunted Foreign Legionnaires, who were fast, well-equipped, and in possession of heavy siege artillery. Wanting a quick and bloody fight, de Lorencez advanced his men to take the two hilltop forts in succession. At about 10 a.m., he ordered a frontal assault up the steep hill to Fort Guadalupe. He charged right up into the Mexican guns, and did not take the fort.

So he tried again at around 11:30 a.m., and failed again, because if at first you don’t succeed…

Then it rained. It rained a lot, making the hill into a mud slide. At that point, Díaz took his cavalry and hit the French in the rear and the flanks, attacking their supply lines. Gen. de Lorencez ordered a retreat to regroup. By around 2:00 p.m., the French were ready for another try, one big massive assault on the Mexican lines. It failed again.

The French took over 700 casualties, with 462 killed, and Zaragoza lost fewer than 100 men. It was a stunning defeat for the French Foreign Legion. Of course, that only made Napoleon III mad, and he sent more men, conquering Mexico City the next year, but the French never got their Mexican puppet state—resistance was substantial and continuous. And the Confederates didn’t get a boost from a French Mexico. Once the American Civil War ended, Mexican Republicans, under Benito Juárez, had Maximilian executed in 1867. So much for being the satrap of a European 19th century power.

However, this whole Cinco de Mayo thing does raise a question. If McClellan had been in Mexico, and Zaragoza had commanded the Army of the Potomac, I think we’d have had much different results. Zaragoza knew how to fight. Richmond would have been sieged and conquered in 1862 with that general in charge. And McClellan, if he were fighting for France, would never have risked the lives of his superior troops. He’d have used the siege guns on Fort Guadalupe. There would have been no rallying cry in Mexico: “Las armas nacionales se han cubierto de gloria.” (“The national arms have been covered with glory.”)

So if you want to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, do it American style, which is really the only style that is celebrated at all. The Battle of Puebla didn’t stop the French from doing what the Americans had done 17 years earlier, but it did make Mexican-Americans in California super happy, since it meant the Confederates didn’t get a new ally that day. By 1863, the dynamics of the Civil War had changed, and Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation.

Drink to General Ignacio Zaragoza, hero of the Republic, who could have done what George B. McClellan was unwilling to do: he fought and won. By his victory, the Confederates were denied an ally, and the European powers stayed out of our war. The slaves were freed. Mexico regained its independence (though it was under Díaz’s boot). Just think, if Zaragoza fought for the U.S., the entire history of our nation could have been changed.

But it’s enough that he won a minor victory over the over-confident French, and provided us a minor holiday to celebrate Mexico. So we’ll drink to that.

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